A vintage advertisement from Philip Morris. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
As we\u2019ve often done when we\u2019ve been here in the Richmond area, we\u2019ve driven past a huge Philip Morris production facility at least twice each day.\u00a0 Right now, it\u2019s brightly lit up with Christmas ornaments and Christmas trees; its six prominent towers are illuminated in alternating red and green light.\u00a0 Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve long wondered, though, about cigarette companies.\u00a0 What would it be like to work in an industry of which the product, if used correctly<\/em>, makes people seriously ill and often kills<\/em> them?\u00a0 Many years ago \u2014 it had to be pre-1998 \u2014 I read an interesting article (in the Wall Street Journal<\/em>, I think) about university graduates in public relations who went to work for the Tobacco Institute.\u00a0 The Institute often managed to hire many of the very best, since it offered enormous starting salaries.\u00a0 But, as I recall, those new recruits commonly only lasted a year or two, because the money wasn\u2019t enough:\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t live with themselves.\u00a0 They simply couldn\u2019t continue to claim and say things that they knew for a fact were not true, things that they knew were destroying health and killing people.\u00a0 (What a Christmas gift!\u00a0 Did you know that the German word Gift<\/em> is equivalent to English poison<\/em>?)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always been opposed to boxing, in both principle and practice ,for this simple reason:\u00a0 While injuries occur in football, and even in basketball and baseball and tennis and track and field, injuring a human body is the very point<\/em> of boxing.\u00a0 Two superbly conditioned individuals step into a ring \u2014 at the peak of cardiovascular fitness, strength training, and agility \u2014 and then set about to damage one another.\u00a0 The object is to compromise the other fighter\u2019s brain to the extent that he loses consciousness or, barring that, to hurt him so badly in some other way that he simply can\u2019t continue.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have grave moral reservations about such a thing, no matter how much I may actually have guiltily enjoyed watching portions of a fight from time to time when it\u2019s been on a screen that I\u2019ve passed by.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, too, with the tobacco companies.\u00a0 Suppose you make or sell automobiles.\u00a0 They can, obviously, hurt and kill.\u00a0 But only when they\u2019re used incorrectly, or something goes wrong.\u00a0 The same is true with sedatives.\u00a0 Abused, they can cause death.\u00a0 But they seldom do so when they\u2019re used properly.\u00a0 Even a properly formulated and vetted vaccine, correctly deployed, can sometimes lead to serious illness or even to death.\u00a0 But cigarettes are different.\u00a0 They are inherently inimical to good health, and, in far, far too many cases, they\u2019re lethal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
How could one live with oneself, working in such a business?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Do Colombian drug lords encourage their children to become addicted to cocaine?\u00a0 I very much doubt it.\u00a0 Do executives at R. J. Reynolds or Philip Morris market cigarettes to their kids?\u00a0 I would really, really like to know.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s possible that manufacturers and marketers and distributors of tobacco products didn\u2019t really know, several generations ago, the harm done by cigarettes and cigars and the like.\u00a0 But that sort of ignorance is impossible today.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of\u00a0conspiring men in the last days, I have\u00a0warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation . . .<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Williamsburg, Virginia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 As we\u2019ve often done when we\u2019ve been here in the Richmond area, we\u2019ve driven past a huge Philip Morris production facility at least twice each day.\u00a0 Right now, it\u2019s brightly lit up with Christmas ornaments and Christmas trees; its six prominent towers are illuminated in alternating red and green light.\u00a0 Merry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27081,1809,27069,27063,27066,27072,27093,27090,27087,2905,1812,1815,7113,788,55,1667,27084,27075,27078,3583,27060,3589,2147],"class_list":["post-93626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-tobacco","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-cigar","tag-cigarette","tag-cigarettes","tag-cigars","tag-conspiring-men","tag-dc-89","tag-doctrine-and-covenants-89","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-lds-church","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-nicotine","tag-philip-morris","tag-r-j-reynolds","tag-richmond","tag-tobacco","tag-virginia","tag-word-of-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>